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SELAMAT DATANG DI ZMID

Rabu, 11 Juli 2012

Russia Looking at 2020 for New Generation Long-Range Bomber

The Russian Air Force may receive its first PAK DA next generation
long-range bomber about 2020 instead of 2025 as initially planned,
Russia’s acting deputy Air Force commander, Major General Alexander
Chernyayev, has said.

“I think the first models of the Prospective Air Complex for Long
Range Aviation (PAK DA) will be supplied to the Air Force approximately
by 2020,” Chernyayev said in an interview published on the Russian
Defense Ministry website late last week.

Russia's Long Range Aviation commander, Major General Anatoly
Zhikharev, has said the Air Force could receive the new strategic bomber
in 2025.

The general look of the new strategic bomber has already been worked
out, and engineers are currently finishing work on aircraft specific
operational requirements, Chernyayev said.

“We have everything today to develop the plane on time and put it
into operation together with [Tupolev] Tu-95MS Bear, Tu-160 Blackjack
and Tu-22M3 Backfire [strategic bombers], which have proven their high
reliability,” he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered development of the new long-range strategic bomber to be sped up in mid-June.

“I know how expensive and complex this is,” Putin said during a
conference on defense orders. “The task is not easy from a
scientific-technical standpoint, but we need to start work,” he said,
adding that otherwise, Russia could miss the boat.

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has said previously that a new
aircraft assembly line in Russia's Kazan plant (KAPO) would build PAK DA
and the new Antonov An-70 propfan transport aircraft. The same plant
previously built the Tu-95MS and Tu-160.

Currently, only Russia and the United States operate intercontinental
range bombers. Most other nuclear-capable nations rely solely on
intercontinental ballistic missiles, based on submarines or in
land-based silos, or cruise missiles. The United States has expressed an
interest in successor systems to its B-1, B-2 and B-52H long-range
bombers.

Chernyayev also said in his interview the Russian Air Force was
planning to modernize its Tu-95MS, Tu-160 and Tu-22MS bombers, as well
as Ilyushin Il-78 Midas air-to-air refueling tanker aircraft.

Russia’s strategic air forces operate a total of 63 Tu-95MS and 13
Tu-160 bombers. Altogether, they are capable of carrying 850 long-range
cruise missiles.